Job #26 Donut Giver

One Monday morning I went to an audition at Pearl Studios. Not to audition.

To hand out donuts.

Remember that book we all had to read in middle school, The Donut Giver?

A woman named Michelle Dyer hired me on TaskRabbit to give out postcards to promote her website. (Didn’t think I’d be promoting it on my blog too, did you Michelle?) Since there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the same intersection, she had me hand out Munchkins too. Being actors, few of them accepted those balls-o-carbs, but they all appreciated the postcards advertising her website. A number of actors have heard about Michelle Dyer’s site already, and those who didn’t readily accepted those postcards for the job info. Who’d wanna reject money?

I was there for about an hour, and while the girls still needed to put their makeup on, one guy Kevin was fine with telling me what kind of work he does to pay the bills in order to have a flexible actor schedule.

It’s a tough life being an actor, because unless you want to work in a restaurant, it’ll be hard to find a job that lets you audition any time of the week. Michelle’s website and book organizes all the temp and catering agencies in one place. So if you’re out of a job, looking for temporary work, or even looking for permanent work in NYC, get it! I used her book to apply to many temp agencies and already interviewed at a few of them.

So if you’re looking for freelance work, spread your ground. Apply to every temp agency you know. You want to make money, don’t you? And get in touch with me. I’ve been doing this for a few months, so I’ve already got a handle on a few things.

If you or someone you know has an actor survival story they want to share, email me at 100jobs1year@gmail.com

Job #16 - Day Receptionist

The above is Bigfoote’s timelapse video of NYC during Hurricane Irene

Remember Job #6, the double-booking receptionist job that I couldn’t do?

They invited me back.

This place is amazing. Bigfoote is a music production studio that makes tracks for commercials for Google, Smirnoff, Adobe, Mercedes… go ahead and listen for yourself.

Their studio overlooks Union Square and they have a kitchen with food! For lunch I made a real ham and cheese sandwich on organic bread and a side of all-natural blue tortilla chips.

My last day there I got talking to the co-owner of the place, and told him my journey through working on several TV shows and now starting to pursue writing and performing myself. I said I’m working paying jobs as much as possible, hitting the comedy theaters almost every night, performing with an improv team, and writing with a sketch team. He listened and nodded and said, “I think you’re on the right track.” That’s good to hear from someone I consider successful in the creative world!

Job #9 - Improv Show Videographer

Wonder why you never see videos of your favorite comedians from their theater days? Think of Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler- why don’t you see videos from their time at Second City?

There’s something about the live nature of improv that doesn’t come across on video. In live theater, pauses are valuable in a way they can’t be on YouTube. Improv also feeds of the audience atmosphere to create a scene that can never be as funny when you see it on screen. When my sketch team recently shot The Barista, we edited it down to almost half it’s original length- just because comedy on YouTube has to be a lot quicker to be funny than in person.

I edited the video above to highlight one single idea that spanned Herschel’s 25-minute set. You’re watching excerpts taken from the first through last scenes to show how an idea evolves over a show.

Oh yeah, and for the first time ever, no one came to their show. Gary DeNoia blogs about it here.

See the whole set.